Doctoral students Jinxue Zhang, Rui Zhang, Jingchao Sun and Xiaocong Jin with associate professor Yanchao Zhang
Yanchao Zhang is an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. He joined ASU in 2010 from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he was an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering from 2006 to 2010. He was a winner of the prestigious National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2009.
Zhang says he came to ASU because it offers “a unique program that facilitates superior research and education and will allow for limitless opportunities.”
Zhang’s research is in wireless networks, mobile and pervasive computing, and distributed systems, with a focus on security and privacy issues.
Rapid advances in wireless and wired networking technologies are making ubiquitous high-speed network access a reality and the whole world increasingly connected. This ease of access also allows attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in networked systems on a widespread basis.
Zhang is working to make networked systems resilient to malicious attacks and also to promote proactive security in network and protocol designs through a combination of theoretical and experimental studies.
His research, supported by the National Science Foundation, covers a wide range of applications including security and privacy in mobile sensing systems, social networks, cognitive radio networks, mHealth systems (medicine and health systems supported by mobile devices), smart grids and cloud computing.
Zhang is collaborating with ECEE professors Junshan Zhang and NJ Tao, and professors Guoliang Xue and Huan Liu in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering. He also works with researchers outside of ASU, including the University of Florida, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Science and Technology of China.
The results of this research have potential to help make networked systems resilient to various attacks, more dependable for decision-making and safer to use by ordinary users.
Zhang says that he is always interested in working with undergraduate and graduate students “who are responsible, easygoing, brilliant, with solid background, and have strong curiosity and determination to explore the path to develop himself/herself into an outstanding researcher.”
Zhang holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, an M.E. in computer science and technology from Beijing University of Posts and Telecom, and a B.E. in computer science and technology from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecom.
Lab website: wins.lab.asu.edu
